Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor #3 Review

 

Writer: Dan Watters

Artist: Kelsey Ramsay

Colorist: Valentina Bianconi

Letterer: Tyler Smith

Editor: Jonathan H Wilkins

Art Director: Oz Browne

Cover Artists: Abigail Harding; Photo; Robert Hack

Publisher: Titan Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: September 25, 2024

 

The Doctor tried to rescue Ruby, but instead of letting the TARDIS materialize in the basement, the Scream Sommelier brought it to limbo. So, the Doctor leaves Maria in the TARDIS to face Cybermen and the Scream Sommelier. The dark god refuses to release him from this pocket dimension until the Doctor screams. Can the Cybermen kill the Doctor in this otherworldly place? Will Rose be trapped forever in the last shopping center on Earth? Let's grab our sonic screwdrivers, leap into Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor #3, and see!

 

Story

The Doctor and Ruby found a cyber-gauntlet on a crashed spaceship. Its temporal signature led them to Sanctum Shopping And Dining in the 29^th Century. When the Cybermen appeared, the Doctor sensed they weren’t real. The Doctor banished his fear, and the Cybermen vanished. But when the Scream Sommelier summoned the Cybermen to the ground floor, the shoppers' fear empowered the Cyberman to kill. Now, with six of their number dead, the shoppers are looking for someone to blame. They were safe here for three years until the Doctor and Ruby arrived!

 

After the Cybermen chased her, Ruby found two Cancaranka. The human-sized insects fear other races, so they hide underground. In Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor #3, Ruby assures the Cancaranka that the shoppers will enhance their lives. When the shoppers activate security, the robots view expelling the troublemakers as the logical option. After solar storms destroyed Earth's atmosphere, nothing remains outside but radiation and intense heat. Ruby might sing along to The Trammps’ “Disco Inferno,” but she doesn’t want to “Burn, Baby, Burn.”

 

Fear propels Dan Watters’ story. The shoppers remained in the mall because they feared leaving Earth. The Cancaranka hide in the basement because other species usually kill them. Ruby’s recurring dream involves losing her mother in a mall. The Cybermen frighten Maria, yet no adults claim her. Is she real or a manifestation of Ruby’s dream? As for the Doctor, he finds shopping malls creepy when they are closed. The automated systems in the last shopping mall on Earth cannot withstand solar storms indefinitely.  

 

 

 

 

Art

The Scream Sommelier hovers above the TARDIS in Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor #3. Surrounded by ghostly Cybermen and smoke, his smile reveals pointed teeth. Kelsey Ramsay’s Cancaranka evokes the Mutts that the Marshall and guards such as Cotton destroy in The Mutants. Shoppers gather as six of their number lie on the gleaming floor. Sanctum Security rolls past palm trees and beneath hovering plants. The frozen smiles on their faces seek to calm the shoppers. Yet the robots are as lethal as the Cybermen and provoke fear from Ruby and the Cancaranka.

 

Clad in his technicolor dream shirt, chocolate brown trench coat, and 4^th Doctor scarf, a red mist obscures the 15^th Doctor's shoes as the Scream Sommelier hovers amid neon yellow and green. White dominates the background as the Doctor squats before Maria. The girl clutches her tan teddy bear beneath a monitor dominated by yellow Cybermen and yellow-green smoke. The green Cancaranka’s red eyes shine amid Valentina Bianconi’s blue walls and green pipes beneath the concourse. When the Doctor pulls away a Cyberman’s faceplate, what he sees evokes Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Edvard Munch’s The Scream. 

 

Tyler Smith conjures large black uppercase letters into white dialogue balloons, casts off-camera dialogue into white narrative boxes bordered by character-specific colors, and programs a computerized font into octagonal dialogue balloons. Words rarely embolden for emphasis and italicize for fright. While giant rounded Vrooops accompany the TARDIS’ activation, enlarged colorful dialogue threatens to burst a balloon before the welcoming sign for John & Smith. Thanks to Titan Comics for providing a copy for review. 

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Fear trapped Humans in a shopping mall when they could have explored the cosmos. As fear makes Cybermen real in a 29^th-century shopping mall, the shoppers forsake their autonomy in exchange for protection. While the Doctor channels the power of What If to escape, the clock is ticking on Ruby’s life. Can he rescue his companion before fear turns the shoppers into murderers?

 

Rating 9.5/10

 

To preview interior art see my preview on The Dragon's Cache.

Antarctica #1 Review

 

Writer: Simon Birks

Artist, Colorist, & Cover A Artist: Willi Roberts

Letterer & Cover B Artist: Lyndon White

San Diego Comic-Con Cover Artist: Abigail Harding

Publisher: Image Comics (Top Cow)

Price: $3.99

Release Date: July 12, 2023

 

Each time her father's job took him away, Hannah looked forward to his return. At least until the day he didn't when her world fell apart. Lost in a bottle, she ended up on the street. Can she find a way to reclaim what she lost and become someone her father would have been proud of? Let’s dig into Antarctica #1 and find out!

 

Story

Homeless, Hannah steals and hurts people to get money for her next drink. One day, the owner of a coffee shop offers her a deal: if she takes a class at the local technical college, he'll give her a place to live. His concern prompts her to survey what's on offer. Once, she dreamed of becoming a scientist. Yet, she realizes that getting her hands greasy appeals to her. So she throws herself into the Mechanic Assistant course. In time this gives her the idea to search for her father. She’d heard him speak about Antarctica. Perhaps that was where he had worked before his employers declared him lost.

 

There's no mention of Hannah's mother or who cared for her when her father's work took him away. I also wondered why learning more technical skills held no appeal. Antarctica #1 left me pondering how she converted her Mechanic Assistant course into graduating with an Engineering degree.

 

 

 

 

Art

Hannah destroyed her childhood toys when she lost her father. Sinking into alcoholism made her hair turn white. Jim's caring cuts through her façade. Figuring out how to repair engines and coffee equipment gives her determination and a purpose.

 

Hannah grew up in the suburbs, lived on the streets, and often sat outside Jim's coffee shop. Her friend's café looks like your typical roastery or diner. The architecture, bridges, and vehicles in Antarctica #1 give scant clues that she lives anywhere other than the United States. Yet eagle-eyed readers will notice a red, double-decker bus drive past the technical college, and envelopes accompanying application forms read British Antarctic Research Company. While Willi Robert’s art doesn’t scream of England, writer Simon Birks lives in Scotland. Perhaps that’s where Hannah lives too.

 

When she accompanies her coworker Matteo out into the cold for the first time, Hannah wears an outfit—bearing a Union Jack--designed to protect her against Antarctica's harsh extremes. Yet when she returns to the blizzard-like conditions, she foregoes her hat and goggles and wears a black, monogrammed fleece jacket. The cover for Antarctica #2 shows her wearing this jacket and clutching a semiautomatic pistol. I'm guessing that exciting times lay ahead for Hannah.

 

Final Thoughts

Gorgeous art envelopes you like Hannah's father's arms as you sink into Antarctica #1's warm embrace. Although dialogue balloons reveal select conversations, the diary-style narrative summarizes Hannah's lost years and how grit and determination—aided by a friend's kindness—propels Hannah to Earth’s least visited continent.

 

8.6/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.